TRENTON — While the city is tearing itself apart, Mayor Tony Mack is asking his neighbor for help, even as his indictment was about to come down.

Mack sent a letter to Gov. Christie on Thursday, asking for a “permanent battalion of troopers from the State Police to work in tandem with the Trenton Police Department” for a period of up to six months or more.

Mack also asked for “additional public safety funding above and beyond any transitional aid allotment” to expand the police force by 60 to 75 officers, the majority of which would be assigned to the patrol bureau.

Gov. Christie was out of town Thursday and did not respond to the letter directly.

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“The state police have a significant presence in Trenton to bolster TPD’s efforts,” said Paul Loriquet of the state attorney general’s office. “We continue to evaluate whether to increase manpower in the city.”

Mack’s letter went out Thursday morning, a day after activists called for “someone credible” to approach the governor about helping the city.

“The City of Trenton has seen a dramatic increase in crime since we were forced to downsize our police department, due to budget cuts. We have taken the necessary steps to improve the efficiency of departmental operations in order to better utilize a smaller police force,” Mack’s letter reads. “While some of these changes have had moderate success it has become obvious that doing more with less, from a crime suppression standpoint, is not working.”

Meanwhile, the grand jury handed up an eight-count indictment against Mack, his brother Ralphiel and Joseph A. “JoJo” Giorgianni on charges of extortion, bribery and mail and wire fraud.

Federal officials arrested Mack Sept. 10 on charges he conspired with others to extort $119,000 from a Hudson County developer. The mayor, who is free on $150,000 unsecured bail, has been under federal investigation since September 2010 and earlier this year had his home and City Hall office raided by the FBI.